1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



443 



/Vtrjot^g tl;)e Bee-Papers 



Gleaiie<I by Ur, AXiller, 



DIVISIBLE BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



I have never used the double brood-chamber in any but 

 my home yard.* In the out-yards I have always used full 

 brood-chambers exclusively, and I have always secured from 

 the out-yards as good crops as from my home yard, and with 

 as little labor, everything considered. The largest yield of 

 comb honey I ever secured from a whole apiary (147 pounds 

 per colony) was from one of these out-yards of full brood- 

 chambers. My youngest son is 21 years old, and I wish him 

 to succeed to my bee-business. I wanted my boy to throw 

 down all nonsense. The battle would be hard enough then. 

 I resolved to use but one style of hive hereafter, and a choice 

 had to be made from the dozens of good hives I have thor- 

 oughly tested ; the double brood-chamber among them. The 

 hive selected was the full brood-chamber, wire-end-frame hive, 

 that I invented 35 years ago. 1 shall probably never make 

 another shallow brood-chamber hive. — B. Taylor, in Review. 



KEEP QUEENS LAYING. 



Don't unqueen your colonies simply because you have or- 

 dered queens. Most breeders can fill orders promptly now, 

 but your case may be an exception. Besides, with the best 

 methods of introduction, there is no necessity, at this time of 

 year, to remove the old queen until the new one is to be put 

 in. — Review. 



CAUSE OF SWARMING. 



The queen's change from quiet toleration of the open cells 

 to violent antipathy toward the sealed ones needs explanation. 

 The reason is very plain, I think, when we hit upon it once. 

 The queen in that matter goes wholly by the sense of smell. 

 Whatever smells like a queen she attacks; and the young 

 princesses take on the scent of fertility Just at the period of 

 their lives when they are nearly ready to be sealed in. While 

 it may not be the only cause of the first swarms issuing, I 

 think we may lay it down as reliable that the queen's irrepres- 

 sible conflict with the sealed cells is by far the most important 

 factor. If we can cancel this factor we can " do the sum." — 

 E. E. Hasty, in Review. 



EXPERIMENTS IN WINTERING. 



Experimenter Taylor reports results of experiments in 

 Review, giving full tables. He did not find any satisfactory 

 indications that the presence of mold affected wintering one 

 way or the other. With regard to the relation of amount of 

 stores consumed to diarrhea, he says : 



"As would naturally be expected, the amount consumed 

 increases steadily with the evidence of a deposit of excrement. 

 Whether the too great consumption of food caused the voiding 

 of the excrement, or whether the conditions leading to the 

 voiding caused the consumption, or whether some other con- 

 dition, as moisture, was the cause of both, may be made a 

 question ; they will at least be interesting subjects for further 

 experimentation. It was perhaps unfortunate that the bees 

 were so well supplied with natural stores last fall that no 

 feeding was necessary, as a considerable number of colonies 

 supplied exclusively with stores of sugar syrup in combs free 

 from bee-bread would have added interest and value to the 

 experiment." 



He says regarding upward ventilation : " My conclusion 

 is that upward ventilation appears to increase somewhat the 

 tendency to an accumulation of feces, and also at least in this 

 experiment to decrease the strength of the colony, and if this 

 appearance is real we may conclude that the upward move- 

 ment of the air disquiets the bees, and causes a larger propor- 

 tion than otherwise would, to leave the cluster and perish." 



aspinwall's introducing-cage. 



L. A. Aspinwall describes in Review his cage for introduc- 

 ing queens as follows : 



"The method is one I have employed the past three sea- 

 sons to the exclusion of all others. It consists of a cheese- 

 cloth cage. The frame is wood, to which the covering is 

 secured by small tacks. As the material costs but five cents 

 per yard, they are quite inexpensive. Muslin will not answer. 

 To make the frame, take a piece of soft wood ^x^ixS}.: inches 

 long for the top-bar, and two pieces 13-2 inches long for the 

 ends — bore a '4 -inch hole nearly through one end piece in the 

 direction of the greatest width, preferably near one end, to 

 receive food for tbe queen. With l!4-inch brads nail through 



the top-bar in the direction of the greatest width into the end 

 pieces, making a frame without bottom-bar IKxl}^ inches, 

 inside measurement. The food hole should be below. Over 

 this frame fasten the cheese-cloth, using eight small tacks, 

 leaving one corner open to receive the queen. The cloth in 

 width should not exceed the frame in length, and for cool 

 weather may be slightly less. To hold it between the frames 

 when introducing, two small pieces of tin are fastened to the 

 top-bar so as to swivel upon the nails which hold the frame 

 together. 



"A cheese-cloth cannot be opened, or a release effected in 

 less than from five to twelve or more hours. While so occu- 

 ' pied the bees are filled with excitement over the presence of a 

 queen, which tends to raise the temperature and impart a like 

 scent to both. The first recognition is by scent only, there 

 being no contact through the meshes as in wire-cloth cages, 

 thus creating animosity which requires time to overcome. A 

 gradual opening of the cage also favors feeding and making 

 acquaintance with the new queen. 



"Although the cage is opened slowly, the method is rapid, 

 and precludes any preparation for queen-cells. 



"The colony to receive the queen must be in a normal 

 condition. During the ordinary season it must contain a 

 queen, and brood in the regular stages. An artificially formed 

 colony, made with brood-combs and bees from three or four 

 colonies will not answer. Being composed of bees strange to 

 each other, they seemingly sulk for a day or two. Such a 

 colony should be furnished with a cell, or, after their con- 

 struction and removal, the cheese-cloth cage will work ad- 

 mirably." 



WATER FOR BEES IN WINTER. 



A Russian, Czieselski or Tseselsky, has been making some 

 interesting experiments regarding the way in which bees get 

 the moisture they need in winter. It is well known that 

 honey attracts moisture in a damp atmosphere. At a tem- 

 perature of 7b' three grains of uncapped honey will in 24 

 hours absorb from .584 to 1.032 grains of water; at 50-, 

 from 1.527 to 3.034 grains of water, thus absorbing fully its 

 own weight of water in 24 hours. So when bees need moisture 

 in winter, they uncap honey in advance of their needs, and 

 the uncapped honey gets from the air and from the breath of 

 the bees the necessary moisture. 



UNITING WEAK COLONIES. 



Doing this in the spring is not very satisfactory. We have 

 about come to the conclusion that, if they can care for their 

 queen, it is better to let them alone unless we have queenless 

 colonies, and then they may be united to advantage with a 

 weak one that has a queen. Feeding out-of-doors does more 

 to build up weak colonies, and give them heart and health, 

 than uniting. We crowd them down on to two or more combs, 

 cover up warm, and let them alone. — Mns. L. C. Axtell, in 

 Gleanings. 



WINTERING IN BEE-CELLARS. 



H. R. Boardman discusses this in an interesting manner 

 in Gleanings. Doolittle had asserted that bees v/ould winter 

 well in a damp, and even moldy, cellar. Boardman prefers a 

 dry one, and backs up his opinion by his experience, he being 

 one of the very successful winterers. He says : "Artificial 

 heat I know to be a good thing," in which view he and I stand 

 almost alone. 



Admitting Doolittle's success in wintering in moist re- 

 positories, he reconciles the differences of practice in this way: 



" Cold and moisture are destructive to the bees when they 

 meet as allies ; but so long as they do not come together they 

 are comparatively safe. Bees will endure severe cold if dry. 

 They will also withstand much moisture in a high tempera- 

 ture." 



Honey as Foo«I an«l Merticiue. — A new and revised 

 edition of this 33-page pamphlet is now issued. It has .5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand lor 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use o£ honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are : Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for $1.50 ; 100 for $3.50. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



Xliat ^'e>v Song — " Queenie Jeanette"— which is being 

 sung everywhere, we can send you for 40 cents, postpaid, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for one year — both for only 

 $1.10. Or, send us one new subscriber for a year (with $1.00), and 

 we will mail you a copy of the song free.^cZJ C . ■ . 



